Seven states in the Colorado River Basin have until Nov. 11, 2025 to design and plan out a high-level agreement on the management of the basin’s water supply.
The water supply supports 40 million people, but officials are still debating next steps. The current rules on how the reservoir stores and releases water expire Dec. 31, 2025. Talks over new guidelines have fueled debate about timing and the scale of water cutbacks.
The states affected include the Upper Basin — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — and the Lower Basin — Arizona, California and Nevada.
Ideas were proposed in March 2024 about the future management, but negotiators have shot down ideas time and time again and have yet to make a final decision.
As the expiration date nears, people have been increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress on this private debate.
Back in 2007, The Department of the Interior established a set of rules guiding how reservoirs, like Mead and Powell, store and release water.
If the seven states are able to come to an agreement by March, the federal agency will release a draft of its plans around December 2025. If everything goes to plan, they’ll have a final decision signed by May or June 2026.
If the seven states fail to agree with each other, the federal agency will ultimately make a final decision on how the basin water is managed.
The federal government already has strong authority over the water management in the Lower Basin and federal units may use their power in the Upper Basin to manage water in the future.
These states could also take legal action against the federal government, but this could take years and would shift the control from local communities to the courts.
So what’s the hold up? One of the main disagreements is whether the four Upper Basin states will agree on firm water cuts during the driest years.
Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming claim they already used less than their allotted 7.5 million acre-feet, averaging about 4.5 million and as low as 3 million in dry years.
Still, disagreements over water allocation have kept tensions high between the Upper and Lower Basin states.
In March 2024, the Lower Basin states rejected the Upper Basin states’ proposal, despite the Upper Basin already reducing its water use.
Each negotiator must reach a deal that satisfies both their state’s water users and lawmakers. For example, Commissioner Tom Buschatzke of Arizona, must strike a deal that water users and state legislature can agree on.
Legal challenges continue to grow if water users disagree with the seven-state deal or if senior users are asked to yield to junior users.
Water experts have been left out of the closed-door negotiations, while the seven states have less than two weeks to agree on a water management supply plan that serves millions.
Although a full agreement before Nov. 11 appears unlikely, a basic framework may still be possible if tensions ease between the Upper and Lower Basins.
Experts suggest focusing on making the most of available water rather than on legal disputes that would leave decisions up to the courts or the federal government.
